Welcome back to This Week in Canada, where second place is good enough, neighborly relations are at a low ebb, real estate is worse than Los Angeles, and the snowbirds are voting to secede.
Canada has always taken hockey seriously, and an Olympic hockey match with the U.S. is no laughing matter. Now the U.S. is treating hockey like it’s war, with Canada as the enemy. Within seconds of the U.S. victory over Canada on Sunday, American X looked like the U.S. had just won World War III. MAGA didn’t differentiate between Trump-supporting Canadians or Boomer liberals, Alberta versus the rest of Canada, or any of the usual internal fault lines. It was all just “Canada,” flattened into a single target.
The White House account resurfaced a 2025 X post from Justin Trudeau featuring a bald eagle pinning a Canadian goose to the ice. Conservative commentator Matt Walsh gave off full 51st-state energy, celebrating that the U.S. had “vanquished” Canada—“the most evil and depraved country on Earth”—which feels like an overreaction for an overtime hockey win, and makes one wonder what he would have said had it gone to a shootout. U.S. congressman Randy Fine chimed in to remind everyone that America is better than Canada in “Every. Single. Way.” Dave Portnoy, founder and owner of Barstool Sports, kept it subtle: “CANADA IS BROKEN. WE OWN THEM ON EVERY LEVEL POSSIBLE. WOMENS AND MENS GOLD IN HOCKEY.” And then there were the “medical assistance in dying” jokes—posts suggesting that the Canadian team might apply after the loss.
